Carriers conventionally formed of folded paperboard or cardboard to accommodate multiple beverage cups or like containers are well known and commonly used, particularly in fast food or carry-out restaurants. Such carriers, in addition to allowing for the convenient carrying of multiple cups, can also function as a holder for cups upon a placing of the carrier on a table, counter top, or the like.
However, as beverage cups have become increasingly larger, the ability of the conventional handled carrier to handle the cups is reduced. While this problem is not particularly noticeable in carriers adapted to contain two or more rows of drinking cups, for example four cups in a square carrier, the problem is particularly acute with regard to 2-cup carriers with the cups aligned within a narrow carrier of a transverse width approximately that of the width of the received cups. Any degree of lateral stability will only result from a perfectly planar base on the carrier and a perfectly planar support surface, tabletop or the like. As the standard heights of the cups increase, particularly as the conventional cups normally increase in diameter upward from a narrow lower end, the problems of maintaining lateral stability to the carrier also increase.
It is to be appreciated that while carriers of the type involved herein are referred to as cup carriers, the word cup is intended to encompass equivalent beverage containers such as soda or beer bottles and cans, juice jars, and the like.